Who Is Sam?

This page will give you some background into my brief but terrifying
aviation history. Perhaps my background is similar to yours, hopefully it is not. If you
want to skip all this biographical blather, click here to get to
the airplane stuff. I had to put this page in here because my momma wanted me to. And I
was taught to listen to my momma.

In the beginning...

It began to look dangerous in 1987 when I started building and flying R/C planes. This
lead to a rather intense period of activity during which I was a contributing editor
writing kit test reports for a nationally published R/C aircraft magazine. My main
interest was large, slow-flying semi-scale models that flew in a realistic manner and
could carry small animals and unruly children. The following images were cover photos for
the aforementioned prestigious tome.

Following a bribe, a designated FAA type provided me with a private pilot ticket in
1990. After a LARGE bribe, the same individual decided it was safer to have me flying out
of sight in the clouds and reluctantly processed my instrument rating in 1993. The
instrument training occurred in a 1977 Piper Warrior in which I owned a fourth share, the
share that always broke. For five years I flew this faithful if somewhat boring steed
while I developed the steely nerves and gravelly voice that is befitting of the proper
pilot.

In 1992, I started construction of a Fisher Flying ProductsSuper Koala, an all wood,
two-place TaylorCraft clone with one of those Rotax 582 screamers in the cowl. The Koala
was flown for 164 hours, most of which were very enjoyable, and a few that were
considerably exciting, but that is another story.

1994 saw the construction of a TEAM
Minimax, a wonderfully flying little bird. The Minimax is just like the RV3 except it is
made of wood, has an open cockpit, a 35hp engine, tops out at 70mph, and looks different.
Sixty-five uneventful hours and 90 seconds of silence were experienced in the Minimax
until a fellow pilot performed a structural stress analysis to the ultimate failure mode
(he crashed my plane).

In 1996, a partner and I bought a 1940 J3-C65 that was about 75% into a
rebuild. We consequently finished the remaining 25% which cost 85% and accumulated 500
incredibly fun hours in the wonderful Cub. The Cub inspired a true story about a flight with a friend, and another story about
a very special flight. Alas, the Cub had
to go when it was time to buy RV engines (my partner built an RV8 and RV-7).

See da planes...

If you don't mind waiting a few moments while some jpegs download, you can check out the
above-mentioned aircraft (except the Warrior...everybody has seen a Warrior).